/market-landscape-scan

name: market-landscape-scan
argument-hint: "[market or problem space, and the decision it supports]"
description: "Map a market's segments, players, substitutes, and whitespace with cited evidence. Use when entering or re-evaluating a market before sizing, positioning, or picking competitors to study."
intent: >-
  Autonomous market discovery: map how buyers segment the market, who plays where (direct, adjacent,
  substitutes, emerging), where the money and momentum are, and whether apparent whitespace is
  opportunity or dead zone — with labeled evidence, so sizing and positioning start from structure
  instead of vibes.
type: workflow
theme: market-intelligence
best_for:
  - "Mapping who plays in a market before committing to enter or re-position"
  - "Scoping a new product line with a defensible view of segments and substitutes"
  - "Producing the landscape view that feeds TAM/SAM/SOM sizing and competitor deep-dives"
scenarios:
  - "We're considering a move into contract-analytics tooling — map that market for me"
  - "My exec team keeps citing an analyst quadrant; show me how buyers actually segment this space"
estimated_time: "20-40 min per run"

Market Landscape Scan

Purpose

Map a market's structure using a workflow, not a one-shot answer: **search plan → segmentation → player mapping → dynamics → whitespace → next-step options.** The output is the landscape view that everything downstream stands on — sizing needs to know the segments, positioning needs to know the players, and competitor deep-dives need to know who's worth the effort. This skill maps structure, not magnitude: it tells you who plays where and why, not how big the prize is.

Input

**Works best with:** the market, segment, or problem space to map — in your words, not an analyst category — and **the decision this landscape should support** (market entry, new product line, re-positioning, build-vs-buy). **Also useful:** any boundary narrower than global — geography, buyer size, price band — and players you already know about, so the scan spends its effort on what you don't.

Input supplied inline with the invocation — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line — counts as answers already given. Use it against the question budget; don't re-ask.

**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The skill opens with at most 3 questions (market, decision, boundary) and proceeds on labeled assumptions if they go unanswered — that's the `autonomous-investigation` contract.

**Example invocation:** `Run a market landscape scan on developer-facing API observability tools, EU-only — this supports a Q4 market-entry decision.`

Key Concepts

• **Governing protocol:** this skill honors the [`autonomous-investigation`](../autonomous-investigation/SKILL.md)

contract — question budget of 3, search-plan gate, Fact/Inference/Assumption labels, Just Enough Mode, stable schema, 4-option Final Step.

• **Discipline mix:** primarily OSINT (analyst and review coverage, press, communities) with

GEOINT/DEMOINT for segment reality-checks and FININT for funding signals — see [`intelligence-collection-disciplines`](../intelligence-collection-disciplines/SKILL.md).

• **Buyer-view segmentation.** Map the market as *buyers* experience it, not as vendors or analysts

carve it — and note where the two disagree. Analyst quadrants are a map someone else drew for their own purposes; the disagreement between vendor categories and buyer reality is often where the opportunity hides.

• **Non-consumption is a competitor.** "They use spreadsheets" belongs on the player map. Treating

substitutes and non-consumption as competitors is the most commercially useful habit in market analysis — the biggest rival is usually the status quo, and it never shows up in a quadrant.

• **The dead-zone test.** Every whitespace claim must survive the question *"or is it a dead zone?"*

Empty space is either opportunity or evidence of no demand; the honest counter-reading is mandatory, not optional.

• **Do-not-invent list (this domain's fabrication risks):** companies, products, funding rounds,

market share, growth rates, customer claims.

Application

1. **Credit inline context**, then ask only the unanswered questions (max 3): 1. What market or problem space, in your words? 2. What decision should this landscape support? 3. Any boundary — geography, buyer size, price band? If unanswered, proceed with labeled assumptions. 2. **Show the 3-bullet search plan** — what you'll search, source types (analyst and review sites, company and pricing pages, funding databases, industry press, trade bodies, practitioner communities), and how facts will be separated from inference. Continue unless revised. 3. **Research in Just Enough Mode** and emit the schema below *exactly* — it is the stable base that quarterly re-scans diff against.

Output schema (do not reorder)

~~~markdown

Market Landscape Snapshot

1. Scope

**Market / problem space:** | **Boundary:** | **Decision supported:** | **As-of date:**

2. How This Market Segments

• [3-5 segments as buyers experience them, each 1 bullet]
• [Where vendor categories disagree with buyer reality: 1 bullet]

3. Player Map

Direct players

• **[Name]:** [who they serve; wedge; 1 momentum signal; URL]

Adjacent players (could enter)

• **[Name]:** [why adjacency matters; URL]

Substitutes and non-consumption

• **[What buyers do instead]:** [why it persists]

Emerging entrants

• **[Name]:** [what bet they're making; funding/traction signal; URL]

Cap the full map at 12 players; strongest signal only.

4. Dynamics

• **Where the money is:** [2 bullets, labeled]
• **Where the momentum is:** [2 bullets, labeled]
• **Consolidation or fragmentation:** [1 bullet]
• **Technology or regulatory shifts in play:** [1-2 bullets]

5. Whitespace and Dead Zones

• **[Apparent gap]:** opportunity or dead zone? [evidence either way]
• [2